Drinking and B-School

Again I agree with kryzak. I can totally drink a glass of wine (or at least carry it around) on a Consulting club's reception or recruiting event. However, the "unmoderated" social events, where students meet students, are 99% times alcoholic.

As to the professions - good point pelihu, something to keep in mind. However, as far as I know the "professional drinking" that is an integral part of, say, consulting job is closer to the "mild socializing", i.e. you're good if you pretend you're drinking (or 'lubricate' yourself just a tiny bit). I don't think the firm will often expect you to get wasted with your client.

Yep to both of you guys. I think that a drink or two will allow you to fit right into the (to borrow a GMATclub term) middle 80% of b-school social life. There are definitely some harder drinkers out there, and you don't need to be one of those, but you don't want to be outside the middle 80% on the bottom end either. I think one or two drinks at recruiting events is definitely the proper target. Anything more is just not a smart move. I used to be a big drinker back in college (ahh, fraternity life) and have been known to still throw a few back on occasion, but I never had more than one or two drinks max at recruiting events.

I get your point, and again, I think everybody will respect that - if they don't they are total losers. But again - like you mention yourself - after a while people get drunk, and there nothing worse than hanging around with drunk people when you're sober (I've done that once, what a mistake). So you have to accept the fact that after a while you won't be able to have any sort of conversation with these people (in the pub I mean) and also that drunks (I mean it in a good way, honest ) will be closer to other drunks.

At all the parties I've been to this month, there were always 2 crowds: the non / social drinkers, and the heavy boozers. I'd actually add that even though a lot of people say that MBA is about boozing, most of the students call it a day once they reach a relative state of drunkness, meaning that you can still have a decent conversation with them even if you're sober; I don't know how it is in the US, but in Belgium uni parties were all about drinking till you drop. You definitively don't see that kind of binge drinking in MBA programs - there are people like that, but not THAT many.

So in conclusion, I wouldn't stress out too much about the drinking issues - you'll probably have a larger potential circle that I will (I'm part of the drink-till-you-drop-even-if-you-make-a-tit-out-of-yourself category).

PS: one piece of advice though: DON'T be the kind of guy that frowns on drinking as if it were some evil thing to do, because then you'll look like an idiot. But I'm sure you knew that already.

PPS: tough luck about the health issue

hahaha, thanks Audio for the tips.

I will "behave" around the "drunkards" and not go "tsk tsk tsk" to them.

But yeah, I think a mild level of drunkeness is fine. I've had some fun nights with people who are drunk. But trashed, that's a whole different story altogether.

amen brother. With you 110% on this one

For those that aren't opposed to drinking, but want to keep from going overboard - here is a helpful hint that I used from time to time in during my "bank life".

If you are at a fancy dinner where a beer would feel out of place, pick a "light" white wine that you don't mind drinking(light= low alcohol). At the end of a night where people are refilling your glass, and you might not be paying much attention to what you are consuming, the difference between a 10% alcohol wine and 14% will be a big difference!

At other less formal events, go for some foreign light beer, sapporo, kirin, etc (picking miller light/budweiser might be a bit out of place). If you are drinking the beers, unless you chug you will be fine all night and clear through the morning. Seriously, you can't get drunk on these unless you really TRY!

For others that don't want to drink, don't bother with the tips above. As I mentioned some months back in this thread, you really shouldn't have any issues. Having seen people do this at investment banking events in Tokyo - the headquarters of drinking culture if there is one - you will be fine elsewhere!

That made me laugh!!

I like to drink (on occassion), but I don't need the expense nor the calories on a regular basis. If I happen to be at a social occassion where I don't want to get drunk, I'll have a drink or two and nurse it for night.

No big deal.

RF

What I can say after 2 months of MBA is that what they say about MBA and booze is all true: there are drinking occasions almost every night, it's hard to follow! Getting old I guess...

haha, true that. We do have drinking events almost every night, but as the school year got busier and busier, the emphasis on those seemed to drop. These days very few people ask around if others are going to a drinking night. Generally people are too busy with work and stuff.

Plus there are quite a few people who don't drink that much, so it all works out.

I think that some people just drink too much when they are in the wrong place, I mean, sometimes I like drinking but I know where to drink or not.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/business/ ... 6955.story

We had kind of the same thing in the GSB a month ago in our semi-formal, though it was clearly not as "heavy". But what I could see is that people don't know when to stop, and that especially younger guys are the ones that are heavy drinkers - I know, nothing new here. What I´d like to know is if the schools that usually take more younger people usually have more problems with it.

Anyway, I believe that if one drinks or if not, one should behave properly.....

wow... that's kind of embarrassing, but it's the same behavior we all see at some parties (especially the ones after finals). And they do tend to be in the younger crowd. Most of us 30+ers are too old to do that

I;ve had very little time to drink. With kids, school work, career events etc. just not had the time to go for a beer. Plus there aren't many bars in the area I live in, except for the university bar.

As for beers.... gourmet beers are on the uptrend, you can get beers with lots of different flavours.

The issue with that whole Field Museum thing is that it was nothing like the email described it. It was blown way out of proportion and then the media picked up on it...using that email as the basis for the story without doing much to verify that it was accurate. The person who wrote the initial email was not even there, and basically wrote down rumors as if they were true. As someone who was there, I can tell you almost everything that "happened" in fact never took place. The only accurate thing was a few people got sick but it was in the bathroom and what do you expect with 1,000 people and an open bar.

This was already talked about in the application area, if you want more details. Put it at this, a student in my class went to both the GSB event and ours and said the behavior was pretty much exactly the same.

Trust a Kellogg MBA to put some kind of marketing risk-limitation strategy on the brand blow-up.

I dont think there is any damage to the brand this has already seems to have blown over. The only people talking about it negatively seem to be people from other school...maybe they just need to stop stressing so much and have some fun themselves.

Diageo was here last night and giving out bottles of booze so obviously they aren't concerned about Kellogg students drinking or they wouldnt be giving out bottles of Johnnie Walker blue label as prizes.

I've been drinking too frequently. Beer has too many calories